[ 399 ] 
pin ; the adduction of it feems altogether imperti- 
nent, on the prefent occafion. 3. The pronoun pi 
is equivalent to the Latin earvm, not is, ille, as 
M. l’Abbe is pleafed to affirm ; and being a fuffix, 
or affix, adheres to the end, not the beginning, of a 
word. But if it ffiould be taken for a feparate 
pronoun, it anfwers to the Latin ill^, not is, ille, 
as it is rendered by M. l’Abbe. That Abdafar and 
Aferimar therefore were brothers only by adoption, 
is a chimerical notion, void of even the lead ffiadow 
of rational proof. 4. He in effedt declares the dif- 
ficulty to be infoluble, when he owns himfelf inca- 
pable of deciding in this matter. 5. He makes the 
fame declaration, when he affierts the difficulty to 
regard only the Phoenician language; which he affirms 
to be utterly unknown, though both he and M. de 
Guignes have in exprefs terms affirmed it to be al- 
moft intirely the fame with the Syriac, and he has 
himfelf attempted to explain feveral infcriptions in 
it. Nor will it in the lead avail him to refer the 
difficulty to the Phoenician tongue, or rather our 
ignorance of that tongue. For he undertook the in- 
terpretation of the whole infcription he has here fo 
minutely confidered, in order to deduce a Phoenician 
alphabet from it ; and unlefs he has, in fome meafure 
at lead, effedted this, how can he take upon him to 
afcertain the powers of the letters of which his alphabet 
is compofed ? I would therefore, in my turn, beg leave 
to afk him the following quedion. Is it not more 
ingenuous, more liberal, and more worthy M.TAbbe 
Barthelemy’s (14) exalted merit, to retradt an errour 
(14) y° urn ‘ des Sfavans, Aout 1760. p. 277. (1). 
2 
than 
